Zen is DO — NOT sitting Idol

Life was not made by what the one (wishfully) think (most of the thinkings

are to find a justification, excuse) but by the deed, what the one did and

do on the moment.

It is the matter of how to deal with the situation.   The situation shows what to DO.

We only need actually DO. When the situation forced us to respond, in most of the case

it is not our choice but the MUST = hence we have to DO unconditionally = and very

little chance to indulge with own EGO = in other words, be in SELFLESS.

We become almost a machine to carry-out the task. —– This is in fact,

what the Zen is.   Zen is not a fancy mind-game.

It is the systematized clarification and the direction of what and how

we have to DO, and to live.

So that, to follow the way how to make a tea could be a Zen. How to fight with a sword

could be a Zen too. —– Found a Cherry blossom, and to try a “Why not” kind of

approach to shoot, and struggle to DO it, is also a Zen. Ha ha ha 😀

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— Who said, Zen is to sitting and meditate = meditate in Mushin ?  Joking.

All the Indian religion takes Meditation as a traditional practice though, do nothing and

sitting is not a Zen. (Such as Yoga Meditation is said to be aiming to have a harmony

with the soul of the universe = to fuse one’s Atman to Brahman.  Though

Lord Buddha himself denied very existence of such Atman.)

So, the idea of Zen Meditation must be invented by very lazy monk to excuse his work.

—– “Don’t be lazy, do something”   “Yes, I’m busy sitting” !   😀

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—– Do something in Mushin will increase the efficiency of the work,

therefore able to achieve more productive life.

In contrast, Do nothing and in Mushin mean Body is idol, the Brain is empty,

it’s just a rug-doll isn’t it ?  Still the Mind is wishfully believing, such practice

could make the person “noble” and reaching to higher consciousness (Really?)

Isn’t it strange ? If it was Buddhism, the Mind supposed to be empty, yet still

having such wishful thinking is a self contradiction.

It is nothing but a delusion. 😀 😀 )

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Zen is to grasp the situation and clearly see what the task on front.

And carry-out its task without any quibble or hindrance

as if nothing else is on the table.

With a clear awareness, that no-one-else would do on my behalf, and no-one

but myself can do, kind of confidence and the determination.

And DO it as if it is the only and the last chance to DO in the whole life —–

to a task, even if it is yet another daily chore.

—– Sound very heavy isn’t it ?   Though, there is a knack, to make it so easy,

just DO it in Mushin.

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= When you face its task straight, there is nothing else you can conceive,

because there is no thinking of alternative, or escape, hope of help from

others, even a notion of next-time, because of Mushin.

Since, the task was carried-out almost machine like accuracy and the efficiency, it will be

cleared without having even a time to have a complaint, therefore, what you feel is

only a sense of achievement and a satisfaction. =

Having a sense of fulfilment and relaxed peace.

This is the Zen.   Having the life all through with this sense of fulfillment

and the satisfaction, on the very end, what can you complain ? =

There only be a peaceful Nirvana.

—– This is the Buddhism of what

Lord Buddha taught.

___/\___

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Spy-Chips in a Net-Device

Past ten years or so, for my connection to the Internet, I’ve used most of the provider next

by next. = In another words, those provider gave me more trouble than a satisfying service.

The one gave me hidden charge, the another gave me double charge from their internal two

accounting system.   And another’s connection was so unreliable, or another’s setting has been

kept changing again and again which seemingly pressurised me to call their engineer to

sort out the problem with extortionately high charge. (= It’s their way to make money)

[]

And there seems a tendency, if the provider’s program is in the computer, it try to

connect even their device is not there, then if new device and its program try to connect,

a message appeared “Another device is using the connection, please set us as a default”

—– so that, I accustomed to remove the program of the old device.

So far it has been worked well except [Three G] = When I dis-installed / removed

their driver program, one file was stubbornly refused to go.

I thought it was a kind of their Ego to keep showing their foot print with their logo.

—– Though, few months later when I try to remove it again   (photo above)

When I clicked “Remove” a small window appeared which is in fact list of my selected documents.

=  It seems, if I remove this last remaining [Three G] file, all those files of my document could be

deleted as the elements of [Three G] file.

—– So, to avoid the risk, I had to abandon the attempt to remove [Three G] file.

= Then I realized that this must be the conspiracy which American Government,

Defense Authorities has warned, “As a risk of espionage had been

pre-programmed in the Chinese communication-chips —– Don’t use them”.

And they are quite serious = to an application of Japanese communication giant Soft Bank to

buy American communication company, American government gave a condition

“Provided, not to use Chinese equipment for the Mob-Phone Business”.

—– (If I connect my old computer to Internet, my files could be automatically

sent-out to Espionage Head quarter where tens of the thousands of their staffs

filtering millions of files from all over the world, to seek gold-dust. It is an

opportunist’s blanket theft.  To stumble good file, it would make a good sale.

Otherwise, why list of my documents needed to appear as the files of [Three G] =

I shouldn’t connect my old computer to the Net, unless I copy and remove

all of my files before-hand. —– Even though, there is no valuable file.  😀 )

[]

Pre-programmed spy-chip seems really existing, and it could be in your

net-device as well.

(My [Three G] Internet USB dongle was made by Huawei and the another

company the American has named was ZTE = both Chinese companies said to

be working with Chinese Army Intelligence Unit)

—– it’s another seriously rotten world.   😦

(Among the readers, any body knows about this matter, please put a comment here)

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Decoding the Human Dream

There is a very interesting report in the SCIENCE Magazine, that the

Japanese researchers had successfully decoded the man’s Dream.

(In fact, I’ve read the article in the Japanese news though, to save a work of translation

I quote the Abstract in the on-line magazine, of which you can see its original in this link.)

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[ Visual imagery during sleep has long been a topic of persistent speculation,

but its private nature has hampered objective analysis. Here, we present a

neural decoding approach in which machine learning models predict the

contents of visual imagery during the sleep onset period given measured

brain activity, by discovering links between human fMRI patterns and

verbal reports with the assistance of lexical and image databases.

Decoding models trained on stimulus-induced brain activity in visual

cortical areas showed accurate classification, detection, and identification

of contents. Our findings demonstrate that specific visual experience

during sleep is represented by brain activity patterns shared by stimulus

perception, providing a means to uncover subjective contents of dreaming

using objective neural measurement. ]

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The actual studies were to match MRI patterns during the dream (of cause, while sleeping)

to the patterns when the volunteer actually seeing the photographic image of each objects.

Hence, when the same pattern appeared while sleeping, the image in the

dream should be the same object which the volunteer could tell.

And this test has been repeated 200~250 times on the 3 volunteers. —– I guess, those

volunteers must be very very patient to be a guinea-pig who was asked to SLEEP and

DREAM while wearing the helmet with electrodes as well !

What a nightmarish pains-taking experiments !   (While sleeping, the MRI live image was

observed and when dreaming brain activity was detected, the volunteer was wake-up

and asked what was in the dream. = Once the cohesive consistency was established,

observer can tell what was in the dream, before volunteer reviled the contents. )

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After all, virtually all the brain activities are in the business of matching

the pattern.   Cognition mean capture the pattern.   Then matching its pattern through

categorization to lexical pattern. = Thence, we can process it in the pattern of word.

If its pattern matches to the knowledge or existing memory pattern, we say

understand.   And if it matches the pattern what we deduced from other

pattern, in logical process or inference, we say comprehend.

So, the same pattern of stimulus trigger the same pattern of reaction = hence consistency

maintained.  (If expected amount of oxygen doesn’t come = pattern was broken, we die.  🙂 )

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Pattern of brain activities doesn’t necessary to be a visual objects. It can be a word or even

a notion.   So that, in near future, human mind could be peeked or even spied rather fancy way.

Only a trouble I see is, existence of particular visual pattern such as car or mountain doesn’t

define any meaning.   Same image could appear in totally opposite context.

Even if I saw Osama bin Laden in the dream and it was detected —– it doesn’t mean I’m a

terrorist.   Far from it, in the dream, I could be a soldier chasing him. 😀

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So, it is not much different from an Access Pass-word by Pr-registered Finger-print Pattern or

Voice Pattern kind.   It is still long way from meaningful practical application

to decipher human mind though, it’s definitely a start.

(To discover general = common to any body’s brain activity Pattern is crucial)

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Buddhism = Science

—————————————————————- ( Buddha 2009 )

While giving a thought to the well known established notions in the Buddhism, after

Lord Buddha’s teachings, such as “See the things in Clear eyes” “Detachment”

even “Selfless mind” then “Don’t believe, but Think yourself” and the fact that

Lord Buddha did ignore the question which was beyond our scope (unknowable),

such as what about the after-life or what is the structure of the universe.

(Stark contrast to other so-called Guru who pretend to know by telling the made-up stories.

—– Who does ever know about the next life or heaven or hell, not mention perpetual soul.)

= I realized, isn’t this, What the Science is ?    Or the attitude to be a Scientist.

When Enlightened man told the truth, he dare to tell groundless story.

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“Right thinking” meant to be nothing other than a Rational thinking.

See the things with Clear Eyes meant to be “See the FACT”, and “Think

YOURSELF” meant, it shouldn’t be any enigmatic special belief but the

Truth which can be comprehensible in anyone’s rational thinking.

As all the factual phenomenon follows the rationalism, anybody knows,

Nothing appeared from nothing.   Nothing happens without cause.

—– Based on the facts, and with the way to observe and analyse it in

strictly objective and rational way, then deduce the truth, is THE Science.

In this process, there shouldn’t be ANY bias of personal thinking, judgement,

preference or special belief = it got to be absolutely Detached from the SELF.

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Truth is independent from any person, let alone anyone’s Fantasy. =

Whether you believe or not, it’s there. —– This is the Science and what

Lord Buddha taught.   (Yet still he was aware of notoriously unreliable our

perception, he spent great deal of his teachings to deal with this matter and

found a technique to eliminates the cause by way of the practice which lead

a person’s mind to a state of  Mushin.) =(This is the core of the Buddhism)

Therefore, if there is so-called Buddhist’s teaching which say anything other than a fact

and beyond the rational comprehension, it is not his original teaching. (Only a problem was,

in this world (in the Dharma) there still be the Unknowable exists.  There is a sect called

Tantra has been trying to deal with it without any tangible answer —– If they could give

any reliable result, they could have been employed by the Pentagon or Russian KGB though,

on the history, deeply spiritual noble “Third eye” which said to be in contact with the Dharma,

still not able to predict such as Earthquake even a single occasion. = If science can’t handle nor

Buddhism can.)  So that, any fancy stories were later invention only to glorify Buddhism.

Buddhism is to Enlighten a person, beyond the personal Life and one’s Mind is out of scope.

What Lord Buddha taught was, how to get clear eyes to see the truth in the life

by get rid of the dubious belief and the delusion, by emptying the mind

(get Mushin), not to trap into yet another dogma.    Dogma is not a Science.

Truth is like a dry skeleton, it has no decoration. —– and needn’t to be. 😀

(This is why my Buddha 2009 is bare minimal skeleton and the head is a clear

void which reflects the Wheel of the Life.  And the heat keep moves its pattern

continuously = never stay the same = This shows what the Dharma is.)

___/\___

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Still Blooming = Perpetual Cherry

This is the same Cherry tree,  I’ve shown you three times before, but always out of season.

Last time, it was a month ago.   And since then it kept blooming without a brake.

In order to highlight the flowers,  this time I photographed her with flashlight.   🙂

But for the reference, the photo above, center is without flash.  And right photo is another

ordinary cherry tree which shows no sign of flower yet — may be takes another 2 weeks ?.

This tree never in full bloom still,  always some (20% ?) = so far, continuously blooming

since last October,  November.  —– Now, the end of March, its mean even Kan-zakura

(Winter Cherry) is in the end of the season.  = in other words, this tree is different from

any other variety = This is the Perpetual Type ?  🙂  — Beyond this time, I should keep

watch how this tree does in the Summer. (I should have done it in the last Summer.) 

As you might noticed,  I was totally fascinated by this Cherry tree.  😀

What caused her to keep blooming continuously ?  (It’s not weather or sunlight.  So, What ? )

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PS:  Now in the middle of April, this Cherry is in full bloom.  🙂

More photos and the comment on this post.

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What is Natural or Not-Natural

The photo here was the Pears sold in a supermarket in Beijing, China.

In a Chinese myth, there said to be a fruits shaped in a human baby which

takes ten thousands years to ripe, and anybody lucky enough to eat it

acquire 50 thousands years of life.

(This story appear in that well known “Monkey story” (西遊記) as well 🙂 )

—– So, a clever Chinese farmer created this to sell them with premium price. 🙂

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Of cause it is not natural at all.

In fact pear fruits were made to grow in a baby-shaped cast.

In an old days, Chinese had a custom to restrict the growth of the girl’s foot with tiny

shoes to make her foot small —– so, it was not a new idea in their culture.

In comparison to recover the oil from the sewerage, an idea to make money

out of cast pear is not too outrageous nor dangerous to human health.

(if we don’t question the mentality itself)

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In fact, there are many strange unnatural agricultural products exists in the world.

—– You might have seen a Pear in a bottle of alcoholic drink. = You must be

wondered how the pear was inserted in the bottle.

It was produced by a way, inserting a fruiting branch of pear-tree to

a bottle, and made a fruit to grow inside.   At least those fancy products

having novelty value. = it must be nice and a fun for a Birthday party. 😀

———- ( Banana with Seeds / Photo from Wikipedia )

Human has been created many new products in the history.

Seedless banana is the one name but few. Banana used to have a lots of seeds inside.

I’ve seen them only once in my life though, the species itself is still existing.

Seedless banana, huge Maze seeds (in comparison to such as rice, corn, Maze is huge) 

and Wild-rice which doesn’t drop to the water when harvesting, were said to

be the top three great leap in the human agricultural history which had been

achieved thousands of years ago.

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Most of those products, the creation of new variety was done by natural mutation and

the human has been selectively breeding them and they become common.

Hence, the fruits and the vegetables were becoming larger and sweeter etc.etc.

Though, with the advancement of the science,  we human is resorting many new

technique to produce a mutation of the species in artificial ways.

= many seedless varieties were created by multiplying the number of the chromosome

by use of a chemical called Colchcine from a Liliaceae Colchcum plant. = because of the

abnormality of the chromosome they become infertile = seed couldn’t be produced, so,

we no longer need to bother the seeds in the grape kind.

In fact, Broccoli, Cauliflower are a kind of cancer in the vegetable body.

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—– So, how natural you want to eat ?   As the campaigner is shouting, you might

be conscious about the manipulation of the gene = GM foods.

Yet, we have been eating many products of which gene or chromosome has been altered.

With loud campaign or obvious strangeness, we may react with emotion though, the most

unnatural phenomena is that the over-grown human population keep exploiting this planet.

This must be the trickiest and the hardest question we have to face.

(Soon or later)

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Zen in Action (2)

When I got New Window fitted in my flat, apparently builders has made a lot of mess which

has not been cleared.   Those mess, wood chips, fragments of concrete pieces etc. went into

the drain pipe and blocked the rain water then created a puddle on the balcony.

= I’ve tried to unblock the drain pipe by a 2m rod without success therefore I contacted them.

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So, I’m waiting them to come and clear the problem.

Though, I’m not expecting everything rosy and perfect.   Their men might be prepare to

deal with drain pipe blockage —– but may not anticipating the 3” deep water which could

cause a mess to my floor. => I prepared a cardboard and a door-mat on the floor.

This is the Zen in action.   (You believe or not — read further and see)

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Zen is a way to respond the situation on front.   Which is directly relevant

to our life.   Get upset or angry is very remote from the Zen.  It’s need a cool

detached mind, and never imagine or expect others do more than reasonable.

(though, drain blockage is their responsibility and it is beyond my capability).

Still, their wet boots will cause dirty foot-marks inside of my flat = is definitely my problem.

Anticipating the situation down to a detail = is the Mindfulness of the Zen.

And give an insight what those people most likely do, in real situation. 

Therefore, expecting too much is nothing but a Selfish Ego and the Greed.  

And to expect others too-much will creates only a frustration =  better not.

This is the way to have trouble-free life and the peace of mind.

= Zen is neither escape into imaginary world and indulging a useless puzzle, 

but to live a real LIFE in a better way.

Samurai Sword was created by the Psychological Vector = endless aim to get

the job done better and stronger, by one step further, which took hundred of

years to reach to the level of the strongest sword in the human history.

So, they come —– but they did most of the work from the other end of the drain pipe.   😀

= Suddenly, within few minutes, all the water has gone !

Grateful to the professionals who knows better than me. = I’m humbled.   🙂

—– You see, this is the Zen = in Action.  Peace of mind has to come from the

peace in trouble-free Life, not by escaping into imaginary green forest kind.

Neither, it is a way to curb mind-set and blur the vision, but take tangible action.

If the Zen was just sitting and talk abstract,  the Zen quality Japanese products, 

let alone  Samurai Sward were never be created. 

The reason why Zen has been misconceived in the west was, that it was taught by 

monks who got no skill to do anything but just sitting, yet able to speak in English. 

Zen is to DO and to LIVE, not for a subject for a talking shop or spiritual fantasy.

Convinced ?  —– Have a tangible nice day.

___/\___    🙂

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Asbestos Work

Following the Window work,  Asbestos removal came. —– Entrance area of my flat was

totally covered and shielded by Polyethylene sheet. 

Big box-fan was placed to extract the air from the enclosure.  (Next photo, left, bottom,white )

Then,  the panels of  Asbestos  were removed,  and inside the whole enclosure was splayed

with cleansing liquid and it was painstakingly wiped by a man wearing full protective

gear with fully enclosed Gas-mask.  —– It was almost like a scene in a crisis  film.

At the end of the operation,  whole set-up was ripped off and taken away. 

Then,  a man casually rolled-up the extractor duct-pipe run through my flat to the

outside, and took the box-fan away.  —– Amazingly without taking any measure to pay

attention to a possible fall-off of the dust from duct-pipe and the exposed fan’s filter

which was obviously having the most concentration of the dangerous asbestos dust. 

So,  I realized that  this whole grand operation was a kind of ritual to justify the

expensive charge,  which is capitalizing the people’s fear.  —– M m m m.

It’s really a rotten murky world isn’t it ?    😦

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Window Work

As the main cause of my recent junk-mountain trouble, the tough-guys appeared to

fit the new windows.

There is an obvious reason to be a big hulky guy —– first, to remove old window and

its frames —– with sheer brutal force.  😀    (Less than an hour, 4 windows had ripped out. )

And new double-grazed, framed windows were fitted in machine like efficiency.

(Of cause, they’ve been doing the same for hundreds of the windows.  🙂 )

So, this is it —– yet, the Door fitting,  Asbestos panel removal,  new Electric cabling

etc.  still to come.    So, I’m still in a chaos to shift the mountain right to left again.  😀

While windows were removed,  strong wind has blown through the flat which made me

feel standing chilly outside.    Though, next day,  may be thanks to double grazing,  room

temperature is two degrees  higher than before. = visible benefit is here. 

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Yet still, with funny practice, people keep higher heating while keep the window half open

= not much Energy saving.  (Because of  an Area heating system,  residents having boiling hot

water and regardless how much use of central heating,  bill is fixed = not cheap though.)

It was a legacy of the left-wing council = same ideology of Communism = expecting the people

to have rational mind and keen to work together for the common benefit. 

Unfortunately, man doesn’t behave like that.  Disintegrated society doesn’t have one Ethos.

—– Still, to make up so called positive friendly text saying that “We were born with good

nature hence we can live friendly happy world”  is easy, and may attract more reader to a Blog

though it is just an empty sweet words.    Real solution and the Enlightenment has to come

from  facing the situation straight with clear eyes —– or to know how  greedy and silly we are. 

—– Sorry, I’m a pessimist.  (I don’t see rosy world. —– that’s why Buddhists call it Samsara.) 

I need a blind or to get new curtain at least.  😀

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Our Perpetual Life ? ? ?

I’m in a mess of clearing and sorting out the mountain of junks piled-up in the past ten years

or so. (Not a clean Zennist’s like situation. 😀 —– I’m doing too many things hence people

keep asking my help or advice, since my help is free  😀 = there is no time to let them go. 

And I’m getting a help from others too = I don’t think I should isolate myself from this world.)

—– Only the trouble was, when I was busy making something for an art event kind, it was

always in a hurry, and soon after, another project might start = therefore, the  materials used

etc has been just piled-up. What makes situation even worse was, I buy “Could be useful,

one day” kind of things, or picking up them from the street.

They are in a shallow box etc, though, box on top of box has built mountains. Ideally, I should

have line of shelves in a warehouse with multi-indexed stock management system though, it’s

a far fetched dream for a humble poor man.  😀

No doubt, in a clean-up process, something unexpected item coming-out between

a pile which I’ve been looking for, or completely forgotten.  A ha, it’s here.  🙂

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What annoying trouble I found was, after years, a cleaning blush kind of cheap

plastic product and particularly the Tesco bags has been disintegrating.

I don’t think the manufacturer expected the people would use their products more than a

year, hence they used cheap material to make-up the item. —– So, I shouldn’t be surprised.

And the Tesco is Proudly announcing that in consideration for the environmental issue,

their bag is biodegradable.

It’s mean, me to left those things under the pile was solely my fault. —– still, I feel annoying

was = may be I still expecting the same must be there intact = my Ego and the greed.

The real trouble is, once I touch them, those disintegrating materials in deed

disintegrates and the small flakes scatter all over, literally spreading a mess.

It’s not funny.

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Even though we know nothing is permanent, still the system has to work in an

assumption of every components stays the same in a same condition.

In order to keep the same condition, our body is keeping the same body-temperature and the

same constitution such as the same salinity of the blood (well, more or less) and so on.

To keep the body in the same condition, the parts which is naturally worn-out will be

replenished and renewed constantly = And to make it same as the original, DNA template was

used though, to keep copying again and again, mistake would occur.

It’s the same to a Chinese whisper, once mistaken, the same wrong-pattern will be copied.

Wrong pattern of Gene could create cancerous cell. On the end, our body became no longer able

to keep its function.  It’s a system bleak-down. —– This is how we get old and die on the end.

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Against this situation, many researches are tackling those problems.

Only a week ago, one Japanese institute announced that they found a chemical which would

prevents the brain cell deteriorates and prevents Alzheimer developed = disease would be

prevented by just an injection.

Another institute succeeded to continuously clone the mouse, over 5 years, 27 generations

so far, and made more than 580 cloned mouse = while preventing the deterioration of

the genes and their futility.   Life science is really advancing in amazing speed.

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So, we human could gain the perpetual life in foreseeable future while

leaving other life form and biodegradable plastic to disintegrate.  —– ? ? ?     

Is it anything to welcome ?

Because, the matter is not just our internal system. We have to see the implication to the

external system as well.   Those systems are closely intertwined as a total system called

Dharma in the Buddhist’s term, which has been refined throughout the time, in past billion

of years.  We may not able or allowed to tinker one corner without affecting the other part.

Our perpetual life could be detrimental to the planet’s Ecosystem.   😀

—– Well, I should talk about this serious subject in the near future.

___/\___

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